Oops, we did it again

We confess we were floored. When Saif Ali Khan started swanning about saying he was doing a film with Natalie Portman, we swallowed it. Yes, we thought the Nawab of all people would not pull a fast one. Now that the office of Ms Portman has slapped a legal notice on him, Saifu tells us that it was all a bit of a lark, that the dear lad was so annoyed with speculation about his life that he thought he would cook up a few stories. Oh dear, he seems to have chosen the wrong combative target. Never mind, let's hope the white swan side in Ms Portman will see the humour in Saif's little joke. But he must take comfort, he is not alone.

For years, we have been hearing about the big Hollywood splash that many of our stars are going to make. Take the uber beauty queen Aishwarya Rai, she has had more debuts than Mel Gibson's anti-everything outbursts. Yes, she did turn up in Pink Panther in a small role and we use the term advisedly. Then, of course, we have the perennial Hollywood hotshot Mallika Sherawat who is acting with everyone you can think of. Now we are sure poor Saif must be mortified at being caught out. But Ms Sherawat is not weighed down by any such embarrassment, she simply plunges on, if you'll pardon the pun. A leading role with Jackie Chan turned out to be as brief as the passing of an obscure comet. Did that stop her? Not at all. The next was a stellar role in a picture based on Barack Obama's election, and oh, incidentally Barack personally invited her over home.

The cleverer ones make a virtue of necessity, saying that they are happy at home so why look outside. Why indeed? Could it be because no on is queuing up at the door? But never mind, the next time someone comes up with a whopper like Saif's, they could put it down to creative licence. And let's hope that not everyone is in such a black mood as Ms Portman. And do excuse us now, we have to go through a number of job offers from a few of the world's leading publications before the end of the day.